This study investigated whether perceptual fluency could affect duration judgments. Fluency refers to levels of subjective ease, in which stimuli can be processed (Lanska, Olds, & Westerman, 2014). The study was conducted with experimental within group factorial design. Visual stimuli were selected from Snodgrass and Vanderwarts (1980) standardized set of 260 pictures. Pairs were made with low and high levels of complexity. Duration was about 1000 milliseconds with .10 variations. 1/3 of pairs were without variation. Participants were asked to judge which image was presented for longest time. Total amount of participants was 37. Main hypothesis was that low levels of complexity would be judged, to a greater frequency, as having been presented for longer duration. Observed mean (M= 20.27, SD = 2.90) was slightly lower than level of chance (M = 21) and the difference was non significant, t(36) = -1.53, p > .13. The null hypothesis was not rejected.

Student Number : 9910519W - M Med research report - School of Public Health - Faculty of Health Sciences / Introduction: This study sought to determine the costs of providing health care to HIV/AIDS patients in a tertiary level hospital in Gauteng Province. The study also determined what the implications were for the hospital in terms of planning and resource allocation. Methodology Study design: Retrospective Record Review Study Period: 03 May 2005 – 15 June 2005 Study setting: Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Gauteng. Study population: Medical & Pediatric inpatient discharges and deaths Results: 1185 records reviewed (812 HIV positive) HIV positive patients were staying longer than others and costing the hospital more as well. Those on ARV therapy cost the most. Conclusion: More resources were being spent on HIV/AIDS patients. Increased lengths of stay and expenditure on drugs and investigations were the reasons for higher costs compared to HIV negative inpatients. Identifying ways of reducing admission and other costs must be seen as strategies in reducing the financial burden of HIV/AIDS to the facility.

Abstract I apply survival analysis to model the factors that influence venture capital (VC) investment duration. Specifically, I fit a parametric survival model to plot the probability of venture capital exit over time. Given a small number of initial public offering (IPO) exits in the collected sample, the analysis focuses exclusively on exits through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). I fit a Cox proportional hazards model and a parametric model under the generalized Gamma distribution with financing, entrepreneurial firm, and VC firm characteristics. For the first time in the VC investment duration literature, I investigate the time to exit with data of Asian entrepreneurial firms and VC firms. The empirical analysis first draws comparisons between Asian, European, and North American venture capital, and then focuses the analysis to North America. I find that venture capital investments in North America are most likely to exit through M&A, followed by European VC investments and then by Asian VC investments. The region of the VC firm has no effect on the likelihood of an M&A exit.

The purpose of this study is to make sense of the notion of freedom in Bergson&lsquo / s philosophy. Bergson&lsquo / s original approach to the problem of free will is the application of the notion of duration to solve this problem. For Bergson, the problem of free will arises from a misconceived framework which is based on reducing time to space. Throughout the thesis, we tried to show how the notion of duration allows Bergson to reformulate and solve the problem of free will. For that purpose the method of intuition as the method to understand the notion of duration is also elucidated. In the light of the method of intuition and the notion of duration, free acts can be seen as the creative acts of the fundamental self. We arrive at the conclusion that freedom in Bergson&lsquo / s philosophy can be understood as a kind of creativity.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1989.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1986.

published_or_final_version / Electrical Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.